Raft Spider

• It can walk on water thanks to surface tension and the water-repellent hairs on its legs, and can also submerge completely and stay under for several minutes wrapped in a film of air.
• When it submerges it grips a stem to keep from bobbing up, since the air trapped in its hairs makes it float like a cork.
• The female carries the egg sac in her chelicerae and then weaves a silk tent among the vegetation for the spiderlings, which she guards.
• It walks on water. A short, velvety water-repellent coat lets it make use of surface tension, as pond skaters do.
• It hunts without a web: it waits at the edge with its front legs resting on the surface and picks up the prey's vibrations as though the water were its web.
• It can submerge completely to hide from predators, trapping a bubble of air as it goes.
• It eats insects, tadpoles and occasionally small fish, which is most unusual for a spider.
• It is one of the two largest spiders in the United Kingdom; its close relative Dolomedes plantarius, very similar in appearance, is endangered there.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton (arachnid)

Habitat and environment

Bogs, pond margins and still-water streams in Europe

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolomedes_fimbriatus